Novato school district staffers criticize charter proposal

A proposal for a new charter school in Novato is flawed in numerous areas including curriculum, budgeting and the likely makeup of the student body, school district staffers said Tuesday.

The staff shared its conclusions Tuesday in a report to the Novato Unified School District board, which is reviewing a petition for a K-8 charter school from the North Bay Educational Foundation.

The foundation wants to serve an estimated 544 students at its North Bay Academy, and it has requested use of the former Hill Middle School campus or a vacant former military parcel in the Hamilton neighborhood. Supporters say the school would provide a rigorous curriculum to help students of all ethnicities and abilities, but opponents argue it would lead to increased inequality in the district.

The foundation is proposing to use Core Knowledge, a curricular model from Charlottesville, Va.-based Core Knowledge Foundation's model used in more than 700 schools. The model includes a detailed sequence of material in language arts, history, geography, math, science and the fine arts.

The curriculum was one of several aspects of the charter that came under criticism from staffers Tuesday in their presentation, and in a written staff report released shortly before the school board meeting.

Staffers did not criticize the Core Knowledge model itself, but in their report they said the charter's educational program was "disjointed" in its attempt to incorporate a wide range of additional materials and teaching strategies.

"It is just not a comprehensive approach to educating students for their future," Vicki Romero, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, told the school board.

Staffers were also critical of the charter's budget, saying the foundation improperly included revenue from a state grant not yet awarded, and underestimated the cost of professional development, teacher salaries and other necessities. Karen Maloney, the district's chief financial officer, said without the grant or other additional revenues the district would spend $2.7 million more than it receives in the first three years.

"They will be fiscally insolvent the first year and each year thereafter," she said.

Staffers also raised an issue that has been the subject of much controversy among Novato parents and teachers — the extent to which the charter school will attract a diverse student body. Staffers highlighted the fact that Latinos make up 31 percent of the Novato Unified School District but only 5.1 percent of the 256 district students in grades K-6 whose parents signed the charter petition.

Because the district staff report was not released until Tuesday, proponents of the charter school did not have responses prepared at the meeting. However, supporters responded earlier this week to the diversity concerns after the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California wrote a letter saying the charter would isolate minorities and poor students.

In a letter to Novato school board members Monday, a lawyer for the California Charter Schools Association expressed support for the charter and said it was premature to project a lack of diversity based on the signatures.

"We remind you that a significant level of recruiting and enrollment occurs after charter approval," Anne Lee, the charter association's senior legal counsel, wrote in the letter. "The diversity of a charter school's entire student body cannot be meaningfully predicted from the signatures gathered in support of a charter petition."

Robert Verhoeff, co-director of the North Bay Educational Foundation, said Tuesday that his group would seek to respond to staffers' concerns. He also criticized a process that has provided little time to publicly address the school board after district staff picked apart the charter petition.

"Staff has spent close to two hours now dissecting a close-to 200-page document and we were given close to 10 minutes," he said after the staff presentation Tuesday.

District staff will recommend approval or denial of the charter school petition at a board meeting Dec. 18.